I’m a creative writer. On the weekends I write poetry and plot my debut novel. During the week, I work in digital marketing. What do these seemingly different activities have in common? Is there a place for creative writing in digital marketing? And what can digital marketing teach the creative writer?

For some, describing yourself as an author or a creative writer might come across as pretentious. Does it mean that I’m never seen without a gauloise and an espresso à la Camus? That I guzzle absinthe and in stints of paranoid delusions perform alchemical experiments à la Strindberg? That I never leave my cork-lined bedroom à la Proust? That I go for casual drinking sessions and end up downing 17 double daiquiris à la Hemingway? It surely must mean that I one day will kill myself or, alternatively, die of pneumonia. Right?

Not quite. As you might have noticed, neither of these statements actually have anything to do with writing per se. And writing is what I do. Not because I like rum or psychedelic drugs or unrequited love or to hunt in the Serengeti, but because I enjoy to write. I enjoy the process of sitting down with a blank piece of paper (or rather, an empty Word document) and articulating an experience, an idea, a metaphor. I like to finish the piece, put it down in front of me, see how it gets up on its own two legs, how it toddles towards the front door and prepares to leave. A minute ago it didn’t exist – now it does.

There is not much more to it than that. To be a writer doesn’t come with a set of behaviours, a way of dressing or an exceptional introverted view of the world. When creating and moulding this alternate reality that is materialising in front of me, I, more than anything else, like to use words. For me, there’s a truer connection between thoughts and words, than between thoughts and other forms of expression. It might just be that writing is a medium that happens to suit me because, God knows, there are hundreds of other creative arenas where I don’t rack up. I’m not good at drawing, or sculpting, or singing, or dancing. And so forth.

Words, however, are my friends. And because I like words, I like languages. Languages force me to learn new words, which in turn make new ideas pop into my head. The more words I know, be they English or Russian or Chinese, the further I can think. Videos, being based on script, also have a place in this word-centred environment – the only difference being that they requiring an interpretation and materialisation before standing on their own.

For me, to be a creative writer is not about being ingenious or unexpected, but to be simple and exact and choosing the best possible perspective for the situation. Creative writing, no matter how fictional, is all about telling the truth, in whatever context that might be. And there is just as much truth in showing a fire breathing dragon as in describing someone lodging his tax return. It is true in the way it’s recognisable and profoundly human (or dragonesque).

Imagine an athlete who’s really good at what they are doing: Roger Federer on the tennis court or Usain Bolt on the running track or Annika Sörenstam on the green – don’t they make it look like what they’re doing is the easiest thing in the world? Are they even breaking a sweat? Instead of doing more than anyone else, they move more clamly, are more focused, more in control. The same goes for creativity and writing. To be good at something is to be direct and communicative. To be simple. It’s not about turning yourself inside out or to exert all your energy at once, but about being precise and to do the right thing at the right time.

Which brings us to where we started – digital marketing. Just like creative writing, digital marketing comes down to putting yourself in someone else’s shoes. These shoes might be Camus’, sipping his coffee in Marais. It might be a single mother’s, indecisive if going for the inbuilt harness or the crotch buckle pram. Or it might be Roger Federer’s, chasing down and turning around a 0-6 tiebreak into a Grand Slam title.

French philosopher, author and journalist, Albert Camus.

It’s not magic or mind reading or a highly developed empathic quality that makes the perspective believable, but a show of respect for the truth and the world around you. More than anything, it’s about authenticity and honesty.
I’m not saying it’s easy. To observe the world requires years of training. And this is exactly what creative writers have gone through. They are exceptionally qualified in the power of seeing. They also know that to write from someone else’s perspective isn’t to be untrue to yourself. You are one entity; your creative writing is something else.

The digital platform, compared to traditional marketing, offers the creative writer all sorts of new challenges. First of all, it provides an opportunity to practice your skills in a range of different forms: from articles and blogs to text messages and tweets. On the web, there is room for it all.

Most of all, though, the writing takes place in a multimedia landscape that’s so varied and exciting because of a constant process of transformation. What the digital dimension looks like today is not what it will look like tomorrow. This means that the words you write don’t stand by themselves, but are part of a flow of connecting texts, video clips, podcasts and games. That is, until the situation that we know is flipped and the boundaries are pushed by new applications and new devices. Knowing that the storytelling remains the same through all of this gives me, and probably most other people too, a sense of security.

When I write prose and poetry, I look at the world around and inside me and try to see it. When I work with digital marketing, I look at the product in front of me and do the same. I ask myself: what is its essence? What is its place in the world? The beauty of it is that I don’t have to make anything up: all I need to do is to aim for the truth and start to paint that true picture using words I love. With that, the enthusiasm for me is automatically there. I dig deep and look for a narrative drive. With respect for the readers, knowing we are in this together, I reach out to them to create an interest.

What I do is to use techniques I know from the art of creative writing to tell a story. I tell a story that is so true, so belonging to this world, that it gets up from my desk and starts to pace the room. And it’s at that time I only have one more task to carry out: to step up to the front door and open it. And that’s it. The story is alive, and now it’s out there, on its own, wanting to be read.

In Social Motive‘s series on the five core social motives, we explore just what it is that drives us to feel, think and act.

According to social psychologist Dr Susan Fiske, the basis behind our decisions in social situations can be distilled into five core motives: trust, understanding, growing, influencing, and belonging.

Understanding these five core social motives is essential to any situation where we interact with other people; in essence, the five core social motives make up the very fabric of our lives.

To understand

Why is it that when we take the train/tram/bus, we get so edgy around people acting strangely? Why do you understand exactly what I mean when I say ‘acting strangely’?

We share a common understanding of what it means to ‘act normally,’ that is, within a range of expected behaviours. It is vital to life and a part of our evolutionary psychology.

“People are demonstrably motivated to develop a socially shared understanding of each other and their environment. A shared information framework allows people to function in groups and in any kind of relationship.” (Source: Fiske and Yamamoto)

Absent passengers acting strangely, a train/tram/bus ride can even, God forbid, become a relaxing part of the day.

Why is it important to understand?

Understanding underpins the social motive to belong. We need to understand first the intentions of another person/situation (good or bad) before then deciding whether they have an agency to act on those intentions, and therefore whether they are of value/worth avoiding. This knowledge – which can be garnered by body language, symbols, social customs, accent, costume etc. – informs and influences how we respond to others.

What does understanding look like?

As a social motive, understanding frees and guides our decision making process. It is like checking the weather forecast before going outside, or buying a book based on the author or genre – you know what you’re going to get. Understanding this makes easier the investment of time/effort/emotion/health.

The absence of understanding can be a dangerous thing for one or both parties. In fact, it can be terrifying to the point of inhibition. There is a reason the xenomorph from the Alien franchise is the stuff of nightmares: its motivations, morphology and modus operandi are alien in both the figurative and literal senses. It is a complete manifestation of the unknown.

How do we understand?

The human experience is easy for us to understand. Across cultures and within our own, there are many basic human processes that we can recognise: body language, tonality, facial expressions (part of why the wearing of sunglasses can be intimidating). Shared experiences and knowledge transfer engender understanding between parties, which is why there are so many team-bonding activities within organisations that are about getting to know one another.

The necessity of understanding can be highlighted by the awkwardness of forced social situations. When you meet someone for the first time, how are you meant to relate beyond a comment on the weather? You don’t know what their sense of humour, if any, is like. What offends them? What are their taboos? Some of these are the reasons for unspoken, unwritten and commonly understood social conventions: they lubricate our decision-making processes.

What does it mean in the age of digital communication and social media?

The digital age has shaken things up. As my colleague Sophie pointed out in her discussion on the social motive ‘to belong’, we are now walking billboards of photos, hashtags, likes, forums, groups, selfies, metadata, comments, bios and aspirational images. It’s like standing in a bar with all the information you need to strike up a conversation emblazoned on each person’s clothing (this is what makes dating apps so successful). At a glance, you can see what makes the other person tick.

So, like creating your own profile on a dating app, the purpose of digital communications and marketing for a business is twofold: 1) to reach out to people, and 2) to help them reach out to you. At the business end, it’s a simple game: you need to concisely and clearly communicate your essence to your customers and clients. What are you about? What do you stand for? What value do you offer? But this is more than selling yourself or your image.

With so much information at so many fingertips, the age of the hard sell is over. Because the marketplace – along with information seeking – has largely moved online, customers are not placed in a position where they are forced to make an immediate decision. If they feel pressured or alienated, they will simply click on a different link, switch tabs or scroll on.

Subtler approaches to communication must be taken. Producing content, nurturing customer and client relationships and providing a consistent brand tone and voice is part and parcel of helping customers to understand what you are about, inducing a better relationship and a greater sense of community.

As a business, being understandable, being consistent and even being predictable allows people to make decisions. McDonald’s isn’t one of the most successful businesses in history because they offer the best burgers. They are so successful because everyone understands that when they walk into a McDonald’s they understand exactly what they’re going to get – a case of ‘better the devil you know’.

So put communication and understanding at a premium: understanding your customers and helping them to understand you. The last thing you want to do is to be bursting out of anyone’s chest unexpectedly and interrupting dinner.

In Social Motive’s series on the five core social motives, we explore just what it is that drives us to feel, think and act.

According to social psychologist Dr Susan Fiske, the basis behind our decisions in social situations can be distilled into five core motives: trust, understanding, growing, influencing, and belonging.

Understanding these five core social motives is essential to any situation where we interact with other people; in essence, the five core social motives make up the very fabric of our lives.

To Belong

When I think of belonging I think of kindergarten. I was in a class with Year 1 students, one of them being my best friend Sarah – my best friend until the class was separated for two hours one day and I interacted with my year level. I mean, it wasn’t a harrowing life experience; we played dress ups while Sarah’s cohort did math. Still, it was then I decided it would never work. Different worlds. Romeo and Juliet.

Lunch came, and I was carefully unwrapping my Kinder Surprise. Dairy intolerant, I was only in it for the toy; this left Sarah guaranteed at least half of the milk dome every day.

‘It’s a KINDER surprise,’ I spat, like a certain incensed dictator at a Nuremberg rally. My new friend (follower), whose name I don’t remember now and probably barely knew then, giggled, as we shared my chocolate.

Tiny monsters. Reveling in our shared destruction of a seven-year-old.

Fiske recognises belonging as one of the five core social motives, and it’s not difficult to see why it made the cut. To understand the influence of belonging in our lives, we only need to think about what happens in its absence: tragedies like Columbine are blamed on the sense of isolation, not fitting in – tragedies like High School Musical also share an intrinsic relationship with the significance of belonging.

Belonging is the fundamental core motive that drives us as people; anything that has such bearing on us as human beings, and our interactions within the world, has a relationship with business and marketing that cannot be understated. The emergence of new media has intensified this link: within the digital sphere we are all connected, and often whether we like it or not. I have deleted Facebook but have Facebook messenger attached to my mobile phone number, I recently unfollowed a brand on Instagram; they have sponsored content that remains in my feed. You have heard someone say ‘Damn Daniel’. Even Ron Swanson has a mobile phone. It’s impossible to fully disconnect.

But, why would we want to? We are at our best when we are connected in social networks; we suffer when we aren’t – even those of us who are anti-online are pulled to it, for the very simple reason that we want to belong. Once upon a time we had no choice but to belong – we had to work together to meet basic needs, such as food and warmth. Then there are the other things we need in life – love, comfort, and meaning – that are all intrinsically linked to our sense of belonging. Working at a call centre, where I spend my day talking to people who often don’t want to talk to me (they just want their missing bread), has illuminated this for me: my sick days tend to fall on the days my two allies are also ‘sick’, or free.

What does this mean for online marketing and business? If consumers are driven to belong, how can we make them? And, as businesses, how do we belong in the online and offline sphere? How do we find our place? What is the marketing version of the culmination of Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens singing ‘We’re All In This Together’? It’s simple: create a community.

The online medium has allowed us to redefine centrality. When you are presenting yourself online, more than ever, the power remains in the hands of your audience, the people you are trying to reach. This shouldn’t be intimidating – it’s exciting.

This idea of belonging is fundamental to the way we have always advertised and marketed, the ‘everyone’s doing it’ model of old advertising on TV (before our Instagram feed told us what everyone is actually doing) has evolved into ‘everyone WILL be doing it.’ Even as ourselves, we are representing brands, a walking billboard – Hi, I’m Blah Blah, I go for this football team and this is my favourite show. I study Blah at university, and live in Blah Blah. My favourite drink is Blah and I can often be found sipping it at Blah Blah Blah.

We define ourselves, and how we belong, without even thinking about it. It’s often outlined in our Instagram bios. Be something someone says about themselves: their favourite clothing brand that they can tag in their Instagram flat lay, their favourite coffee place, the cool band they saw on the weekend. We want to belong, that’s the easy part. But as a brand you just have to be something people want to belong to.

In Social Motive‘s series on the five core social motives, we explore just what it is that drives us to feel, think and act.

According to social psychologist Dr Susan Fiske, the basis behind our decisions in social situations can be distilled into five core motives: trust, understanding, growing, influencing, and belonging.

Understanding these five core social motives is essential to any situation where we interact with other people; in essence, the five core social motives make up the very fabric of our lives.

To Influence

Why is it that some relationships develop fast, when others seem to take forever? What initiates them, and how do we make them last?

Last weekend I caught up with my friend Anna, whom I hadn’t seen in about a month. Anna brought a friend I hadn’t met before. Already when we were making our way to one of the quiet corners of the café, I noticed Anna and her friend seemed very close – it was something with how they moved and how they expressed themselves – which was something that surprised me. I thought I knew all of Anna’s best friends. Maybe this was a childhood friend now living overseas, I thought. Anyway, we got our coffees and sticky puddings and started to recap what we had been up to since we last met.

‘I haven’t seen you since that rooftop launch party,’ I said.

‘Really?’ Anna said. ‘That’s where I first met Dana.’ She pointed to her new friend. It turned out that my initial reaction, them being best friends, was more or less correct. They had met at the party, realised they lived in the same suburb and the following day started to take regular evening walks. A lot can happen in three weeks, like strangers becoming inseparable best friends.

How unexpected, how almost magical, I thought. But pondering it more closely, I realised relationships aren’t supernatural or irrational. At least not solely. In fact, relationships can be analysed and understood. Given the right conditions, friendship is even likely to occur. It might sound too scientific; some might argue that you can’t thoroughly understand and quantify human minds the way you can analyse matter or forces of nature. Certainly a valid argument, but not the whole truth.

Take, for example, the concept of geographic proximity. What is undoubtedly needed to become friends is some sort of physical (or digital) connection. Basically, you need to meet. It is exceptionally hard to befriend someone you have never met, or met once but never met again. Some of your best friends are probably people you involuntarily had to share a physical space with, like, say, in primary school. You spent time together, and in the process of doing so, you became friends. I would dare to guess that there are people out there that you have much more in common with than your current circle of friends, but if you never meet these new people, it surely will be tricky to befriend them.

‘But meeting a person is not enough to become friends,’ you say. There are people from high school that I definitely don’t hang out with today. True. To increase the chances of forming a relationship, you also need to interact. Sometimes this is part of what is called influencing each other. ‘Influencing’ might sound harsh, as if there is some sort of shenanigan or trickery in play. However, any actions we label ‘influencing’ is really you extending your senses to find your place in this small portion of the universe, to try to shake that feeling of being lost in a vast world. You reach out to your surroundings – thereby influencing them – and are met by someone else who is doing the same thing. I influence you, at the same rate as you are influencing me. What this does is create a sense of familiarity, a mutual feeling that you are both in control of the situation. Studies show that people who feel that they have control of their lives live happier, healthier and even longer lives. Quite the benefits, I would say.

When letting your customer influence your business, you are offering them this sense of control. And in doing so, you are paving the way for a long-lasting relationship. Encouraging this crucial activity can be complex, but shouldn’t be a difficult task.

Building this relationship can be improving the ways customers can contact you. It can be showing how much you appreciate user comments. It can be letting them know that you are listening. To shake hands, you both need to reach out. And if you keep holding on to that hand – interacting while maintaining proximity – a friendship is destined to start to grow. The beauty of it is that we want to befriend each other, simply because we are human beings. And as such we have a need to to reach out to our surroundings and develop relationships. It is a need that is connected with the survival of the human race, which means that this was the case ten thousand years ago, as it is still the case today.

***

When I had finished my soy latte I hugged Anna and shook Dana’s hand. On the tram home, I received a text from Anna, saying that Dana forgot to invite me to next weekend’s potluck; that she would love to see me there. ‘Of course,’ I replied. ‘Count me in.’ I have already made plans to bring my home-made hummus. She might like it. If this keeps going, who knows, I might suddenly find myself having made a new friend.

The rule of three is a principle that governs many aspects of our lives and for many different reasons, but what is it about this concept that makes it so useful for improving communication? And, better yet, how can you use it? Furthermore, what’s Matthew McConaughey got to do with it?

Firstly, I need to remind you that you already know the rule of three. Let’s start with a joke.

An Englishman, an Irishman, and Scottish man are drinking in a bar.
A fly lands in the Englishman’s pint. The Englishman is incensed, and pushes his beer away and orders another.
A fly lands in the Scottish man’s pint. The Scottish man looks at the fly, shrugs, and just drinks the fly down.
A fly lands in the Irishman’s pint. The Irishman is furious. He picks out the fly, and violently shakes the fly over his pint glass while screaming, ‘Spit it out ya wee bastard!’

We start first with the scene-setting (three men, drinking in a bar), progress to the action/complication (a fly lands in each of their pints) and conclude with resolution (each man has a different solution, the last being the punchline in this case).

While three is a magic number right across fields as diverse as photography and mathematics, the three stage structure is almost universal in strong, focused communication.

In academia: you introduce your hypothesis, explore it and test it through examples, experiments and references, then draw a conclusion. In fictional narrative: such as films, books and stageplays, we have a beginning, middle and end (a form that has been referred to as the mythic structure or the three act structure). In news stories: a journalist will introduce the focal event, delve into the who, what, when and why, and conclude with what, if anything, is being done about it.

The hero’s journey as customer’s journey follows the same structure of establishment, action, conclusion.

But we’re not just here to identify; we’re here with an eye for improving communication. For that – like the structure suggests – we need to delve a little deeper.

I’m going to start out using my own (non-rocket science) area of expertise, but then we’ll look into how you can apply these principles day-to-day, from emails to business proposals to complaints, and you will see how effective a method the rule of three is for achieving a desired outcome and improving communication.

SET THE SCENE

This is the ordinary world, the status quo, the current state of being. In marketing communications, this is where you identify the problem for your audience or customer. You suggest a problem they might not even know they have or simply propose a gap in their knowledge.

‘I’m Big Kev, and I’m asking all Aussies to try my brand new laundry products. You know, we’ve been using overseas brands, but I reckon, if you put mine to the test, I know they’re the best.’

INTRODUCE THE ACTION

This stage is also referred to as the initiation stage by narrative scholar Joseph Campbell, and for good reason. It is where a reader or customer is introduced to new information, goods or services and is able to experience, digest and take on board (or reject) these alternatives to the old way of being/doing/thinking.

‘We’ll give it a go.’

‘You beauty!’

RESOLUTION

Successful marketing for a good or service means that the customer reaches this stage and is impressed enough to become a loyal buyer or reader. They will recommend or share the information; return for more; and often, through word of mouth, they will recommend the good or service to others.

Making a genuine complaint about something is a part of everyday life. But making a genuinely effective complaint is an altogether different art form. If your goal is to eat a bowl of soup (ideally without a side of housefly), then we can tailor the course of action around that.

Let’s apply the rule of three: set the scene, introduce the complications/consequences, suggest a solution.

‘Hi, I ordered this soup from the specials board. I was about to have some when I discovered a fly in it. It’s no big deal, I don’t want to make a fuss or give a bad review or anything, but it’d be great if you could take it back and return with a new meal.’

‘Sir, soup is not a meal.’

Seinfeld gags aside, you have stated the situation, suggested (kind of subtly) the consequences, and gifted a solution that avoids them.

Note: if you don’t suggest a solution in your communication and round out the three, the other party can be unsure of how they should respond. This can inhibit their actions and lead to a nonconstructive exchange.

If the point of much of our communication is either an exchange of information or the incitement of action, then the structure provided by the rule of three allows countless uses in improving communication day-to-day.

At a macro level, it can provide the structure for your writing, speeches and presentations – ‘tell them what you’re going to tell them, tell them, and tell them what you told them,’ writes Carmine Gallo for Forbes. At a micro level, items in lists of three, or three-word phrases are some of the most memorable e.g. Liberté, égalité, fraternité; Sex, drugs and rock n roll; ‘Alright, alright, alright.’

As pointed out by Jeremy Porter, a great example of the rule of three at a micro level is Matthew McConaughey’s 2014 Oscar acceptance speech. While McConaughey was criticised for not using his platform to speak out about AIDS (the condition afflicting his character), the speech is notable for being engaging and carrying you right through to its conclusion.

Apply the rule of three to your writing communications. Apply it to your presentations and business proposals. Hell, even apply it to a text message argument with your partner. Use the rule of three to help guide you through planning, writing and delivery, and you will go a long way towards improving communication.

And even if you didn’t pay attention to what I’ve been telling you, at least pay attention to Matthew McConaughey.

“…we shall, um, fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall, like, fight in the hills; moving forward, we shall never surrender…”

Churchill didn’t say it quite like that, but you will certainly be familiar with the offending interjections in everyday communication. They are the junk food of language, the dead space in your bag of Cheese Supreme Doritos; nothing, really, but filler.

So why do we use filler in speech?

Unscripted speech is harder (and more terrifying) than writing. It relies on charisma, projection, body language, eye contact, tone, immediate delivery – not to mention quality content. While searching our minds for the right content to speak, let alone deliver in the right way, words or utterances such as ‘um’ or ‘ah’ let our listeners know we’re still with them.

The catch, of course, is that listeners who are familiar with the content might perceive this as a lack of familiarity with the content on your behalf, never mind a lack of confidence in delivery.

While there is nothing essentially wrong with umming and ahhing (and you might know the meaning of life, but you just get a little nervous in front of crowds), perception means a great deal in life and business.

‘Effective immediately, I expect you to implement high-level strategic thinking in lowering the toilet seat after use moving forward.’

Ok, it’s unlikely anyone would ever write that sentence (or is it?), but we have all experienced managers or fellow employees who seem to relish in this class of corporate verbosity.

While it’s easy to accept the above sentence as everyday, or even harmless, by taking a step back you will see it for what it is: an expression of insecurity and a lack of conviction in authority and intent behind words.

Consider the alternative.

‘After you use the toilet, put the seat down.’

Same meaning, fewer words, better delivery = more memorable.

In speech and in writing, the phrase ‘moving forward’ and other corporate-speak sneaks into communication like goon into Falls Festival. In larger organisations it can spread like osmosis (or, depending on your point of view, the plague) because its nature as a type of padding or qualifier for intent suits risk and litigation averse businesses, or anyone afraid to be proven wrong.

David Brent: the master of corporate speak.

Fillers and corporate speak impede the meaning behind our communication with hollow words. Overly verbose statements may even suggest to educated listeners the omission of truth and fact, and can even be connected to lying.

On an individual level, it pays to eliminate such language – particularly ‘moving forward’ – from your vernacular. There are three main reasons that this corporate trash belongs in the bin:

It betrays a lack of application. Unoriginal speech and writing is easy to perceive as lazy – and not unjustifiably so.

It betrays a lack of conviction. Laziness, especially from management, breeds contempt in employees and co-workers and diminishes any threat of bite behind bark.

At a more basic, syntactic level, there exists an inherent and absurd redundancy in the use of ‘moving forward.’ Let’s take our example of a request to put the toilet seat down.

You and a friend are fixing a toilet. You need the seat lowered. You don’t say, ‘Put the seat down moving forward,’ because the immediacy of the context doesn’t require any reference to future lowering of the seat.

You have been asked/commanded by a superior (or partner) to lower the seat after use – ‘After you use the toilet, put the seat down.’ The context of discussion positions an answer – or statement of intent of action – as applicable to all subsequent uses. ‘Ok, I’ll put the seat down,’ doesn’t require ‘moving forward’ to qualify it, nor does the original request to do so.

Moving forward and other types of corporate filler take the function of ‘um,’ ‘like’ and ‘ah’ and wraps them up nicely. However, this process distorts and conceals the intended meaning of what’s actually being delivered – sort of like receiving a pair of socks for Christmas in a gift box.

Simply by eliminating these boxed pairs of socks from your writing and speech, you can build trust, inspire confidence and develop a reputation as a straight, effective communicator. After all, the great orator Winston Churchill may be remembered for many things, both good and bad, but never as a corporate goon who said he’d take on the Nazis moving forward.